By now you've probably seen one of the life-size replicas of the Stanley Cup created entirely out of chocolate.

The hunger-inducing images have made their way across television and the internet, including thousands of mentions on Twitter. In that regard, the decadent trophies have accomplished their goal. The idea behind the edible art came from NBC Sports which is broadcasting the Stanley Cup playoffs. World renowned chocolatier Jacques Torres was hired to sculpt 30 of the sought after NHL prize, of which 28 were sent to various members of the media. (Torres was allowed to keep two for his stores.)

But the chocolate replicas almost never made it off the drawing board.

"They came to me three times before we said yes," Torres reveals.

The 52-year-old master pastry chef doesn't do custom work. The time and energy required to create such labor intensive pieces rarely returns a worthwhile profit. But after the hat trick of meetings and some convincing from those close to him, Torres realized how unique an opportunity it was.

"It's cool to do something that historical," he says. "Everybody knows the Stanley Cup."

That didn't make the process any easier though. Torres had to hire an artist to help replicate the trophy and then allocated six chocolatiers to the project. The facsimiles took five days each to make and weighed in between 46 and 50 pounds. Mr. Chocolate, as he is affectionately known, wouldn't reveal the actual value of each of his Stanley Cups except to say, "the chocolate costs quite a bit of money."

The only other custom project Torres recalls taking on was creating a dragon out of chocolate a few years back. He says the only reason he took on the request was because he'd never made a chocolate dragon before. It took him an entire week to complete.

"From time to time I need that kind of excitement and challenge," he says.

The chocolate Stanley Cups were certainly exciting, especially for those lucky enough to see one in person. Torres made a delivery stop recently on CNBC's "Sports Biz: Game On" with Darren Rovell. Co-host Erin Sharoni called it a marriage of the two best things on earth: Hockey and chocolate.

"I was beside myself," she says. "Jacques is such an amazing artist, and the chocolate replica looked EXACTLY like the real thing, minus the actual writing. I am a qualified judge, considering that the real Stanley Cup was on our set the very same day."

For those wondering, the replicas are not just for display. Torres used his finest chocolate, nothing less than 60 percent cocoa, and after some admiration the three-foot cups are meant to be eaten. During his Game On appearance, he cracked one into several pieces for the hosts to try.

"It tasted BETTER than it looked. Ever had Jacques Torres chocolate before?" Sharoni asks. "It's a glorious experience. Try it before you die."

-- Adam Watson is the food czar at ThePostGame. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamKWatson.

ThePostGame brings you the most interesting sports stories on the web.

Robert Griffin III tweeted a picture Tuesday morning of a bust of his likeness made almost entirely out of Subway Smokehouse BBQ Chicken.

"All you can do is laugh at this... Thank you @SUBWAY for my Smokehouse BBQ Chicken Sculpture," Griffin wrote.

Sure, it's incredibly unappetizing, but this isn't the first fast food replica of an athlete created for the sandwich chain. Jim Victor is a sculptor whose medium is all things edible. For the past several years, he's carved the restaurant's latest endorsers out of the ingredients under the sneeze guard.

Today's beer industry is dominated by a handful of large macro-brand corporations such as the "big four" brewers: Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev, London-listed SABMiller, Heineken and Denmark's Carlsberg. Between them, they control half of the global beer market.

Still mass-market beer sales are falling in Western Europe and the United States. Only "craft beer" from independent breweries is growing, by 11 percent in the United States, with the number of new brewers globally up by 16 percent in 2011 over the previous year.

This is backed up by the consumer experience of the beers. The RateBeer Best 2012 annual beer competition was again the largest in the world—more than 140,000 beers from over 12,000 brewers worldwide were tallied. The contest was open to all breweries including the big players, but only craft beers made the top 50.

Unlike other beer contests, the competition largely involves tasting commercial samples, rather than special batches prepared for festivals. A beer's score is based on its percentile ranking among all beers. Every beer also has a "style" score.

That's Graeme McDowell being understated. It's actually glow-in-the-dark-golf with your dream foursome, plus the U.S. Open champion, some surprise gifts and cold beers. The Guinness Black 9 Challenge is a golf outing unlike any other and McDowell is excited to be a part of it.

"Being Irish, my background involved a few pints of Guinness," he says.

His relationship with the famed stout has grown with his success on tour. McDowell and Guinness teamed up to launch his G-MAC Foundation last summer. But he's probably most remembered for quaffing a few pints out of the U.S. Open Trophy after capturing it in 2010.

"It's probably been a year and a half since I've had a sip out of it and believe me liquid tastes pretty good out of that thing," he says.

Now McDowell is teaming up with the beverage giant again. Fans can send in their dream foursome and explain why they want to tee it up with Graeme on the Black 9 Challenge.

McDowell will help choose the winner, fly him or her and the other three golfers to Chicago, and even play alongside them. On top of golfing in the dark, there will be unusual obstacles on the back nine, but the exact details are still a secret at this point.

With baseball season here and football right around the corner, sports fans everywhere are dusting off their portable chairs, canopies and camping stoves to practice the beloved American pastime of tailgating.

It's food and fun for the whole family, right? Well, not if you're the guy stuck in the corner behind the grill and screened off from the action behind a wall of smoke. Bravo Sports has eliminated that problem, though, with the Blacktop 360 Party Hub Grill Fryer.

"With the Blacktop you put the grill in the middle and people congregate around it," says Chief Branding Officer Mark Heineken. "It's a more social environment. We call it social cooking instead of grilling."

And whatever you do, don't call it a grill. The Blacktop 360 has a warming section, griddle, infrared burned capable of over 600 degrees and a 16 oz. deep fryer in the center. This circular machine goes way beyond burgers and hot dogs.

"One of the favorite things we cook when we go tailgating is fish tacos," Heineken says. "We fry the fish in the middle, warm the tortillas and cook the onions on the griddle."

On Wednesday, Jeff Francoeur had 20 pizzas delivered to fans sitting in right field section 149. A wonderful gesture made even bigger by the fact that the Royals were on the road and those pies were for Oakland A's fans at the Coliseum.

To fully understand the peace offering, you have to go back to last year. A group of A's fans in the bleachers were celebrating Bacon Tuesday, a smorgasbord of foods laced with the namesake treat. In between bites they practiced the art of heckling the opposing right fielder, who just happened to be Francoeur that day. He took it well and even went into the stands after the game to sample some of the porky goodness. The following night he spotted his new epicurean friends and tossed a signed baseball wrapped in a $100 bill to them which read, "Beer or Bacon Dog on me. Jeff Francoeur."

Yu Darvish's first start as a Ranger came with mixed reviews, as did the hot dog the ballpark served in his honor.

The 25-year-old righthander, who came over from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in the offseason, allowed eight hits and five runs to the Seattle Mariners on Monday night. Despite the shaky five and two-thirds innings he pitched, Texas got the win.

For Darvish's debut, Rangers Ballpark released the Yu Dog, a Japanese twist on the traditional frank. It's a jumbo all-beef hot dog wrapped in wonton and deep fried, then covered with beef teriyaki and wasabi mayonnaise. The whole thing is topped with a seaweed salad and sprinkled with sesame seeds, and served with shoestring French fries tossed in sesame oil.

Ice cream sundae in a plastic helmet? That's old hat, pun intended. You can get that frozen favorite at just about every ballpark across the country. But there's only one stadium that can claim the Taco in a Helmet.

Digital Domain Park in Port St. Lucie, Fla., is the home of New York Mets spring training and this Mexican masterpiece. A plastic helmet is filled with crushed tortilla chips, seasoned ground beef, cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, then topped with shredded lettuce, salsa and jalapeños.

Not sure how that would differ from nachos in a helmet or taquitos in a helmet, but the bottom line is it's delicious. The offering is so popular that the stand even has its own Twitter account. TacoInaHelmet is an unofficial page, but it doesn't really matter who's behind the account. This is one food that should have its own social media presence.

Just about any night of the year, that wouldn't be a problem, but on Tuesday, the 2011 Masters winner will host the annual Champions Dinner at Augusta National for the exclusive club that has earned green jackets. It's not exactly the time or place to don an apron and ask the likes of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus how they like their steaks.

"Well, I mean, we were going to try and do a barbecue," Schwartzel said. "In South Africa we call it a 'braai.'"

The hope was not just to be hands on, but to also provide a laid back atmosphere for the otherwise austere event.

"I don't like very formal dinners," he admitted. "I thought of keeping it very relaxed, sort of standing around a fire and cooking the meat."

But both Schwartzel and the golf club eventually decided it would be best if the chefs were left to tend the coals so that the defending champ could get the most out of the evening surrounded by golfing royalty. But the 27-year-old did get his wish for the menu, one inspired start to finish by the food of his home.

The appetizers include two South African favorites. Biltong (below, left) is a cured meat, similar to beef jerky. There will also be droëwors, a type of thin, dried sausage. Several seafood options including shrimp and lobster will be grilled outdoors to keep with the theme of the evening as well.

And as fans flock to New Orleans to watch the NCAA championship on Monday night, celebrity chef John Besh has some edible advice for all the visitors in the Big Easy. Eat your heart out.

The southern native, who owns nine restaurants and has appeared on Food Network countless times, soaked up the basketball action before the Final Four. On Friday, he and fellow chef Marc Forgione cooked a Taste of New Orleans event where they got to mingle with the coaches.

"We had one-on-one time to hear their strategy before the games," Besh said.

And the coaches got to dine on some NOLA favorites like gulf shrimp creole with ricotta cavatelli. But for those who didn't get that coveted invite, Besh has some restaurants that fans shouldn't miss while in town.